What did you do today? 2018 version

[travelover]

We moved to a new property and have to prune a small orchard of a dozen apple trees. Any tips/tricks to impart ? Do you seal the cuts ? If so, what with ?

My advice is to watch a bunch of YouTube videos. It is not practical to seal all the cuts, but one should clean the tool with alcohol between trees.

The gist of it is to cut off all vertical watershoot branches, all branches that grow inward the center of the tree, all crossed branches and lowest branches that grow downward at a 45 degree angle. In total, it is best not to cut off more than 1/3 of all the branches in one pruning or this spurs excessive waterprouts the next spring. Trim in the winter during dormancy. I did not thin the apples last year which was a mistake. In June some will fall by themselves and this is a sign to thin them more aggressively. There is a YouTube video for that, too.

 

[MBAustin]

Spent the morning working on various financial tasks including confirming capital gains distributions in our taxable accounts to make sure I had hit the target for our Roth conversions and contributions to our donor advised fund.

Went to yoga class, then DS (home from grad school) installed the new garbage disposer I had ordered from Amazon. Discovered that the contractor who did our remodeling 9 years ago had installed the old one incorrectly, which is why it had a slight leak the entire time, causing a lot of corrosion and other unpleasantries . But we got the whole job done in less than an hour.

Later he and I will go to serve dinner to the homeless and hungry folks downtown, then I've got tickets for us to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert (DH wasn't interested). Should be a nice evening. It's great having DS home for a couple of weeks, even though he spends a lot of time out with his friends when he's in town, as he should.

 

[braumeister]

then I've got tickets for us to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.

Should be great. "Wizards in WInter" is my constant earworm at this time of year.

 

[W2R]

It's an absolutely horrid wintry day here today, the worst in years. It's cold (for here, 50F), very dark, pouring cold rain, and we have predictions of 50 mph winds all night starting some time in the next hour or two. Yeah, 50 mph!!! Unbelievable. BRRRRRR!!!!

So, after seeing my doctor (who is happy with my weight loss), I picked up Frank and we went to lunch. The traffic was insane and the drunks are out. We had a nice lunch, although afterwards I had to drive a couple of miles further away from home before I could manage to get turned around and headed for home, due to the traffic mess.

It's so nice to be safely home in my nice, warm house. Neither of us has to go anywhere.

 

[Breedlove]

TSO , many years ago in another life I used to play in a really really good band and Al Pitrelli used to play the same clubs we were playing . It was always fun because his family mom and pop were teachers from NY . Now roll the clock forward many years a friend of ours who is the promoter for TSO across the nation had a party here in Houston the day of the show . Walked up the Al Pitrelli , he never remembered me of course . But had a good conversation about the old days when he was with CPR and MD Joked about where did all of the tattoos go . So when you go see Trans Siberian Orchestra and you say wow on that guitar player Al Pitrelli remember he is a really cool person

 

[gayl]

Decided to not look at the market today. And it was a nice comfortable break. Spent the morning cooking. Now the freezer is completely full of dinners as I do appreciate my own freezer dinners rather than what I see in the grocery store. So I've got 2 each of these in freezer & 1 in fridge. Vegan or vegetarian so it'll hold:
Pasta & meatballs
Stir fry with peanut sauce
Tofurky casserole
Vegan curry

Also: lemon loaf
12 banana muffins
Almond butter granola bites

Won't have to cook until January

 

[aja8888]

Surgery Day!

Reported at 6:30 AM to the hospital surgical center to have my SVT ablation performed. At 7:30 AM I was gowned up, had a bunch of wires on my chest and back (after shaving all my hair off), and had an IV in my left arm. Doc and 3 techs did the RF ablation to my heart after inserting two ports in my groin area. Procedure was done while I was 1/2 conscious.

The Doc said he is confident he shut down the area that was causing the uncontrollable heart beat rate.

By 9:30 I was back in recovery and had to lay flat for 4 hours while the veins healed up and the bleeding stopped. Not too bad, just boring.

Went home at 1:00 PM and finally had a good cup of coffee.

DW can wait on me hand and foot until tomorrow when I am supposed to be good as new.

 

[braumeister]

Reported at 6:30 AM to the hospital surgical center to have my SVT ablation performed. At 7:30 AM I was gowned up,

I'm sure your gown was lovely. Did you get a corsage to wear with it?

Congrats on getting through that procedure. Should be a nice present for you.

 

[W2R]

Reported at 6:30 AM to the hospital surgical center to have my SVT ablation performed. At 7:30 AM I was gowned up, had a bunch of wires on my chest and back (after shaving all my hair off), and had an IV in my left arm. Doc and 3 techs did the RF ablation to my heart after inserting two ports in my groin area. Procedure was done while I was 1/2 conscious.

The Doc said he is confident he shut down the area that was causing the uncontrollable heart beat rate.

By 9:30 I was back in recovery and had to lay flat for 4 hours while the veins healed up and the bleeding stopped. Not too bad, just boring.

Went home at 1:00 PM and finally had a good cup of coffee.

DW can wait on me hand and foot until tomorrow when I am supposed to be good as new.

Sounds really good, Aja8888!!! Glad it went so well.

Those shaved areas are going to get itchy! But if this procedure fixed your heart rate then it will be more than worth it.

 

[Walt34]

I didn't go a doggone thing today. This morning when reaching to the bottom of the refrigerator for a salad made a few days ago something convulsed in my back muscles and I was suddenly in agony. It only lasted a few seconds with some lingering soreness, but not wanting to take any chances I decided that this was going to be a "lazy day" with the objective being to accomplish as little as possible. I succeeded admirably.

After finishing the salad (yum!) I took a Percocet from some left over from more than a year ago and took a three-hour nap. Went out to get the mail and retrieved the SS notice that the 2.8% COLA will amount to $60.30/month after taxes and Medicare.

We haven't the foggiest notion of what we're going to do with this windfall but I suspect the bulk of it will be spent on lunches with DW, as good a use for it as any I can think of.

 

[MRG]

This was a weird day.

A buddy I grew up with posted photo of him running a chainsaw on FB. I gave him crap about being careful around logging equipment.

The background, in 1974 he w*rked at the sawmill my DB and I were running. No fault of his own, his pant leg was caught in the arbor(shaft that runs the saw, powered by a 100hp diesel) and puff, he disappeared! Half second later he's standing up, without his jeans! They were shreaded and ripped off of him, luckily. Otherwise he'd have been flopped to death. Lucky for us, his tidy whities survived. [emoji23]

He mentioned he tries to forget that day, still bothers him. I remembered a few things like that, places I could/should have died. Run away log truck on a mountain top, 6 miles of grade with no brakes; guy not seeing me and almost crushing me with a front end loader. The last log truck I ever unchained sent 100 pound truck stake on my head... the list is longer...

This afternoon I get a Christmas card, from a guy I met in 1985 at Megacorp. We went different paths since before the turn of the century, but stay in touch. About 10 years ago he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same brain cancer that took J. McCain, and he was allowed in a clinical trial. He survived, the trial was canceled because everyone else died.

It's great to be alive!

Your story puts a bookend on my day. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Reported at 6:30 AM to the hospital surgical center to have my SVT ablation performed. At 7:30 AM I was gowned up, had a bunch of wires on my chest and back (after shaving all my hair off), and had an IV in my left arm. Doc and 3 techs did the RF ablation to my heart after inserting two ports in my groin area. Procedure was done while I was 1/2 conscious.

The Doc said he is confident he shut down the area that was causing the uncontrollable heart beat rate.

By 9:30 I was back in recovery and had to lay flat for 4 hours while the veins healed up and the bleeding stopped. Not too bad, just boring.

Went home at 1:00 PM and finally had a good cup of coffee.

DW can wait on me hand and foot until tomorrow when I am supposed to be good as new.

My post seems pretty dark. Here's something brighter. There's three old men ice fishing in the photo.

 

[aja8888]

I'm sure your gown was lovely. Did you get a corsage to wear with it?

Congrats on getting through that procedure. Should be a nice present for you.

The gown was pretty nice, but very "revealing". I was relieved to find out the nurses have seen male body parts like I was revealing before. The yellow socks with white dots on them I had to wear were not a match to the gown though.

Yes, a good present was the successful procedure. What a high tech operating room and competent staff doing the work.

 

[REWahoo]

This morning when reaching to the bottom of the refrigerator for a salad made a few days ago something convulsed in my back muscles and I was suddenly in agony.

Thanks for posting this, Walt. I've been trying to convince DW that salads (what her ranch-hand dad called "rabbit food") could be hazardous to your health and this helps support my case. Had you been reaching for a slab of baby back ribs and a side of fries your back would have never complained.

Glad you're OK.

 

[Ronstar]

All woodworking - Helped a friend start some pistol grips and pistol case, finished up a bottle opener, cut a log up into some boards for a small box. put a final coat of oil and then waxed a couple of hiking sticks.

 

[W2R]

I didn't go a doggone thing today. This morning when reaching to the bottom of the refrigerator for a salad made a few days ago something convulsed in my back muscles and I was suddenly in agony. It only lasted a few seconds with some lingering soreness, but not wanting to take any chances I decided that this was going to be a "lazy day" with the objective being to accomplish as little as possible. I succeeded admirably.

Sorry that you hurt your back! I agree with REWahoo; that would never have happened if you had been reaching for a much heavier plate piled high with babyback ribs and French fries.

Why is this? Well, I can explain by citing another example. Yesterday F brought me a HUGE slice of the best cheesecake ever known to mankind, that was left over after a party someone had. As everyone knows I have been working on weight loss but there is only so much one can do! Willpower went out the window and I scarfed it down blissfully. This morning my weight was down another pound and a half and my blood sugar was down too. This exemplifies the ER Forum Negative Outcomes Theorem: Whatever you can logically expect, the reverse will occur.

After finishing the salad (yum!) I took a Percocet from some left over from more than a year ago and took a three-hour nap. Went out to get the mail and retrieved the SS notice that the 2.8% COLA will amount to $60.30/month after taxes and Medicare.

We haven't the foggiest notion of what we're going to do with this windfall but I suspect the bulk of it will be spent on lunches with DW, as good a use for it as any I can think of.

My SS COLA isn't quite that much, but that COLA plus the "diet COLA" from my mini-pension add up to $64.01/month. I have no idea what to do with it either. Both of us had better run over to the "Blow that Dough" thread and study it closely for ideas.

 

[Ronstar]

Your story puts a bookend on my day. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
My post seems pretty dark. Here's something brighter. There's three old men ice fishing in the photo.View attachment 30250

Oops- The three old men must be submerged. Been there - done that.

 

[MRG]

Oops- The three old men must be submerged. Been there - done that.

They're on the bank. Three herons, fishing. Not sure how they show up on this app.

One is behind the open water, slightly left. The other two are near the end of the point, almost side by side. In front of the brown reeds.

 

[Ronstar]

^ whew! That’s good.

 

[MRG]

^ whew! That’s good.

Yeah, never good to be underwater and invisible.

I was invisible once, Jose Cuervo was responsible.[emoji111]

 

[ivinsfan]

It's an absolutely horrid wintry day here today, the worst in years. It's cold (for here, 50F), very dark, pouring cold rain, and we have predictions of 50 mph winds all night starting some time in the next hour or two. Yeah, 50 mph!!! Unbelievable. BRRRRRR!!!!

So, after seeing my doctor (who is happy with my weight loss), I picked up Frank and we went to lunch. The traffic was insane and the drunks are out. We had a nice lunch, although afterwards I had to drive a couple of miles further away from home before I could manage to get turned around and headed for home, due to the traffic mess.

It's so nice to be safely home in my nice, warm house. Neither of us has to go anywhere.

The drunks were out at lunchtime , that's a good reason to go home and stay home... Happy Holidays!

 

[W2R]

The drunks were out at lunchtime , that's a good reason to go home and stay home... Happy Holidays!

Thank you! Same to you.

Today I am finishing a simply gargantuan load of laundry (in my high capacity LG washer and dryer), and after it's done I'll put everything away. Makes me feel ready for the holidays to have no laundry left to do.

Then I'll see if the drunks are still out. Bet they are! Anyway we will go to lunch about two miles from here and I'll be careful driving. If it's really bad, there are restaurants just a half block or block away from our homes and we could go there instead.

It's a beautiful, sunny day with relatively low humidity here in New Orleans right now.

I finished all my Christmas shopping; I don't give Christmas presents to anybody at all except my daughter, and haven't for 30 years so nobody expects me to buy them presents. Frank loves this custom because he doesn't like buying presents either. Instead of giving gifts to each other, we each buy ourselves something we actually want.

Also I don't entertain at Christmas at all, so I don't decorate the house or yard. All in all, I think I have completely tamed Christmas; I love the way I have scaled back on holiday errands and stress, and can focus on caring and kindnesses towards others instead. Works for me, although if others did this they might miss a more traditional Christmas.

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

morning constitutional

unless this involved The Federalist papers please provide more detail

 

[HFWR]

unless this involved The Federalist papers please provide more detail

More likely a Sears catalog...

 

[MBAustin]

TSO , many years ago in another life I used to play in a really really good band and Al Pitrelli used to play the same clubs we were playing . It was always fun because his family mom and pop were teachers from NY . Now roll the clock forward many years a friend of ours who is the promoter for TSO across the nation had a party here in Houston the day of the show . Walked up the Al Pitrelli , he never remembered me of course . But had a good conversation about the old days when he was with CPR and MD Joked about where did all of the tattoos go . So when you go see Trans Siberian Orchestra and you say wow on that guitar player Al Pitrelli remember he is a really cool person

Thanks, Breedlove, for the details. Pitrelli was indeed impressive. We enjoyed the show overall but were a bit disappointed that a substantial part of it wasn't really Christmas-y, and the background images for two of the pieces were actually a bit disturbing (photos of Apache helicopters and the night attack on Baghdad that started the first Gulf war).

 

[Bestwifeever]

Ordered items from Costco for a make-your-own-panini Christmas dinner at our house for six adults, two kids. "Free" delivery (the items are a bit more expensive than if we went to Costco to buy them) this afternoon, but the savings from not being face to face with potential extraneous purchases are huge! First time we've had groceries delivered. I may never leave my house again.